Potato Planting

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but when I get hungry, I get angry (the classic "hangry" issue). Unfortunately, working in the sun all day makes me wish for a liquid diet. This isn't very practical because we stopped milking Annabelle (when the cows came, our method of corraling came to an end). And we have no fruit for smoothies anyway. The irony of 400 trees and no fruit to eat definitely does no escape me.

So today was, sadly, a grumpy day for me. There was good in it, but I was grumpy. I need to figure out something cool to eat, and how to stay cheerful despite feeling dirty and hot.

Despite the grumpiness, we managed to be productive. Phil and the boys put up the electric netting again around the animal pen. We had taken down the netting for the cows, putting up the more durable and tall cattle panels instead. The cattle panels keep all animals in, but the chickens can get out. While I appreciate the chickens scratching up the forest mulch and eating ticks, I don't appreciate them flying onto the house trailer ledge and watching us curiously while we eat. Or walking through my kitchen pooping. (It was only a matter of time before I found some upleasants on the countertop!) Or eating all the clover that holds our trailer slope in place, or approaching my garden.

So I was thankful to have the chickens returned to their pen.

While I worked, Phil ran errands in town. Then he redid the wiring on the trailer, so now it is fully functional, with long-lasting connections (rather than the stop-gap tape he used while transporting the cows).

I planted potatoes. My Lasagna Gardening book claims that I need only put down cardboard or newspapers on the ground, then put my seed potato pieces on top, and cover with hay. This is, apparently, sufficient to grow good, clean potatoes with little effort.



I like little effort. I planted a mix of eight types (17 pounds of seed potatoes). What blessed and amazed me was that we had gotten rid of most of our boxes (either through burning or dump runs). I had just finished with all the cardboard I could scrounge, and was thinking I needed to just plant on the ground and see how that went, when the UPS man pulled up and delivered ten large boxes: my irrigation line. A present both of the contents and the box!

Sadly, the irrigation isn't quite right: the connectors sent won't work with our system. And even Phil, able-to-figure-out-everything, isn't sure how the parts they sent are supposed to work.

And with the heat and the dry wind, my trees look so thirsty. I am praying for rain, because I honestly don't know if I can handle another five hour watering fest, when what I really want is to get trees in the ground. And it is SO disappointing to receive the wrong pieces. Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow; may they offer all the water the trees need.